GeeEssEff

I have been really looking forward to this ever since it was announced. It’s a really cool concept and happy to see it looks like a reasonably good execution as well. Will definitely be picking this up when I have a bit more time next month.

I could understand this a bit more if it wasn’t on the back of MS spending the best part of $80billion simply to lock games out of competing platforms. It just seems super hypocritical. Unless they plan on bringing their exclusive live service games to PS such as Halo Infinite and Forza Motorsport I don’t see why Sony should give them theirs.

Believe me I don’t want to have this bitter fanboyish attitude but it’s just getting frustrating now to watch the direction MS are going. For the last decade it seems that Xbox’s entire business strategy has been centred around piggybacking on other people’s hard work and talent while bringing very little to the table themselves.

I’ve started playing Reina on Tekken 8 this week and I’m obsessed. When I’m not getting my ass handed to me on ranked matches I will be playing Infinite Wealth and Helldivers 2…..as you can see my 2024 resolution of not buying games at launch is going swimmingly

@djlard Ahh yes all the reasons I bought a PS5….to stare at folders. Play the CDs I no longer own because Spotify exists. Browse the internet in the least convenient way possible…are you currently reading this on a phone/laptop or have you fired up the PS4 because you just love trying to navigate the web with a controller? Not entirely sure how I can sarcastically respond to the media player bit because I dunno what you mean tbh…it plays blu rays and it has most of the apps like YouTube, Netflix etc. what media do you want?!? Yes controller battery is bad but extra long USB cables are available for cheap and it’s the trade off for having the extra bells and whistles.

It sounds like you want a PC not a games console. It also sounds like you just want to whinge for the sake of whinging.

@__jamiie Sorry I meant Xbox profit. We all know MS is profitable. Im also sure Xbox IS profitable, what I’m suggesting is that it’s probably nowhere near as profitable as you think which is why they never publish profit figures. “Single digit profit margin” straight out of the horses mouth. You keep throwing massive revenue figures out to sugggest ABK will pay for itself in like 12 months or something. I am interested to know why you think that

@Yozora146_ But “it’s a simple fact” Jesus Christ I hope this guy isn’t in charge of any finances where he works

@__jamiie you keep stating “Microsoft has made a profit” while consistently demonstrating you have no idea of the difference between profit and revenue. Evidence the profit and people will take you seriously

@djlard I mean I can understand you being a bit disappointed with the PS5 overall but calling it a downgrade is just being over dramatic.

@__jamiie Potentially but we don’t know the profit margin for ABK as a whole. The only info I can find was in Q2 2023 they generated 2.2billion revenue. Even if their profit margin is as high as 15% that’s only 1billion a year profit. Again cash revenue generated is not the same as profit. Revenue basically just tells us how much a company has generated in sales in a given time period and doesn’t factor in dev costs, salaries, keeping the office lights switched on, materials, distribution, ongoing support etc. Microsoft are big enough to play the long game with these acquisitions and absorb the immediate loss but realistically it could take 15, 20 maybe 30 years to pay off ABK based on the profit of the Xbox business alone unless they make some drastic changes….hence them trying out multi platform releases.

Edit: found this https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/delisted/ATVI/Activision%20Blizzard/gross-profit
Which suggests that ABK makes around 5-6 billion a year gross profit so I was well out on my estimations. But still best case scenario if they use ABK profit to fund the purchase it will take about 10 years to pay off

@__jamiie Xbox is almost certainly profitable but it’s worth remembering that Revenue does not equal profit. Phil Spencer has previously stated that Xbox operates at a single digit profit margin so even if they make 12bil a year revenue (based on 4bil a quarter) the max profit they make is around 1billion assuming that single digit is 9% but it could be as low as 120mil at 1%. Either way it’s going to take a hell of a lot of good quarters to claw back what they have spent on Bethesda and ABK.

Edit: got the most basic maths wrong. 4bil rev a quarter would be 16bil a year resulting in 1.4bil profit at 9% and 160mil at 1%….long day

@Godot25 I think the monthly prices are higher to tempt people into yearly subscriptions which are much better value, particularly if you can get them on a deal. I’m in the UK and I have picked up premium for around £80 a year before in a deal and for what is essentially £6 a month it’s a good deal.

The thing with PS plus extra and premium is I don’t think you’re going to get massive amounts of value if you buy a lot of games on release or you are subbed to gamepass as well. For people new to PS or those who are happy being a few years behind on releases it’s incredible value even at the monthly fee.

@Godot25 Xbox and PlayStation are direct competition….MS and Sony are not. Gamepass has the backing of a 3 trillion dollar company that can afford to add day one games and make deals with more third parties. Sony is worth about 118bil which means you could fit roughly 25 Sonys Into MS and have some change (when you actually look at these numbers written down the difference is staggering….a trillion is equal to one thousand billion and has 13 digits!!).

Yes, as a consumer I would love every single 1st party game to arrive on PS Plus day one. As a rational human being I understand that this isn’t possible. If Sony were making promises they weren’t keeping with regards to PS plus I would be annoyed but they have been pretty honest about what they can and can’t do with the service from the get go. So simply put if people don’t think they are getting good value from either Plus or Gamepass they simply shouldn’t subscribe but we can’t expect the exact same service from two vastly different companies.

@Stickleman I just want to address the “everyone has copied it” comment about gamepass. Interestingly it’s MS who have been looking at other people’s homework in the run up to modern day gamepass. Sony introduced PS Plus in 2010 giving away 3 games a month which you could access for the duration of your subscription. MS followed suit in 2013 with games with gold which was lumped in with Xbox live. At this time (and happy to be corrected if I’m wrong) Sony still offered free network play so the PS plus subscription was an entirely optional extra to get a few games a month. Then Sony introduced PS Now in 2014, a sub service where you could access a library of games with new ones added each month. MS released Gamepass in 2017 as a response to this. The copying has very much been one sided but Gamepass has become more famous because of the day one releases and a back catalogue of all first party titles. I have no idea about the financials but I absolutely do know it is not some amazing original idea that MS came up with.

@djlard maybe for you but I’m very happy with my day one PS5. Anyone who expected Sony to just drop the PS4 the moment the 5 was released was being unrealistic. And some of my favourite games from this gen were released on both….GOW Ragnorok, Elden Ring, Gran turismo 7, Horizon FW (which I personally think is the best looking game I have ever played, it definitely didn’t feel like it was being held back). If you sit there being bitter because PS4 players are playing the same games as you then you are not going to enjoy the console. Why not just play the incredible games instead of panicking about whether the developer has squeezed every last teraflop out of the development process?

@XboxistheBestBox someone who is literally called Xboxisthebestbox should not be throwing the F word around.

@RoomWithaMoose it’s one of those that plays much better than it looks. It also helps that it’s as fun when it’s going badly as when it’s going well. With regards to new stuff the way it uses community objectives is pretty unique, I’m sure it’s been done before but probably not on this scale. I dunno what to tell you, it’s just pure dumb, hilarious fun!

@MattBoothDev I love the term “fisher price scheme” 😂

I have been predominantly playing online ranked (but getting destroyed) and it’s much rarer on Tekken to be matched with someone using the simplified controls then it was on SF6 for people using modern controls. Also the simplified control scheme on Tekken basically gives you a very very limited set of moves you can use so you might get button mashed for a round or two but once you realise the few patterns they can actually pull off it’s super easy to counter. I’d say in about 60 ranked matches I have played less, than 5 opponents have been using simple controls.

@djlard Demons souls, Rift Apart, Returnal, Spiderman 2 weren’t on PS4. Outside of first party you have games like BG3, Alan wake 2, Tekken 8 and loads more. I get your point but to say FF16 is the only game not appearing on PS4 is just not true, particularly over the last 12 months.

@KundaliniRising333 The max price of PS premium is £13.50 a month. The top 6 games alone on that list currently retail for around £70 combined on Amazon and at least 4 of them are actually pretty good games. We have also got foamstars, steelrising and rollerdrome to keep for the duration of the subscription. And we get online play (yeh I wish it was free like pc but we are unfortunately not the master race). I will absolutely accept when people say they are crap additions or they are disappointed that they have already played the games but I cannot understand when people think this is an overpriced service. I spent nearly the full price of a monthly sub on my lunch today. What are you expecting PlayStation to give you for £13.50?!?

@DennisReynolds Yeh this was what I was hoping for. I had nothing on over the weekend so put quite a few hours in but no guarantee of the same during this event, whenever it might be.

@MrMagic They could fix Blizzard….or they could sell 2.5 billion Diablo portals and recoup the money they spent on them

@UltimateOtaku91 on Sunday I found that I wasn’t getting XP and rewards when I was joining other peoples sessions but I was getting them when I was hosting so since then I have mainly been hosting lobbies with randos….just don’t tell the randos they won’t be getting anything 😉

Overall though, bugs aside, I am really enjoying the game. It’s been one of those rare ones I find myself thinking about while waiting for the hours to tick by at work so I can hop back in and play it. Can’t wait to spread more democracy!

@Kidfunkadelic83 It definitely doesn’t shy away from its starship troopers influence. I think it is a bit of a time sink overall so if you have got other stuff going on it’s probs best to wait….i also don’t have time but i bought into the hype. While it’s nice you can unlock everything without microtransactions I would be lying if I said progress was particularly fast but it’s definitely designed with the view that people will still be playing it in years to come. It’s live service through and through but at the same time doesn’t feel predatory.

@Kidfunkadelic83 how it works in practice is actually quite hard to describe but basically there are different levels with different objectives on each planet. Some levels are simply protect an area from waves of enemies but most of them have a bit more stuff to do like facilitating a missile launch, blowing up a massive bug base, turning on a reactor etc. All levels have a time limit and the larger ones (usually 40 minutes) also have side objectives and little points of interest that give you more xp for completing but if you stick to the main objectives you could whizz through most of them in 10-15 mins.

On top of this everyone who plays the game is working towards global objectives so you can see the percentage of completion ticking up. There was a big celebration on Reddit over the weekend when we all finally liberated the first planet 😂….its actually quite cool.

Sorry for the brain dump but hope it helps!

It’s a really really fun game. It’s the first time in about 15 years where a game has compelled me to speak to randos via game chat. I ended up playing with 3 brilliant American chaps for a couple of hours on Saturday. Even when it’s going wrong it’s hilarious. I have never been so delighted to be team killed because it’s funny watching your character rag doll for miles after taking an air strike to the head and the reinforcement numbers are well balanced.

Once Arrowhead smooth out the server and matchmaking issues we will have a real gem on our hands. It has certainly smashed all my expectations (which admittedly were pretty low)

My mum walked in on me playing PES 2003 and thought I was watching live football so Kojima probably isn’t far off the mark here.

Still deep into Infinite wealth with some Tekken 8 to break it up. It’s been such a good start to the year!

@Weebleman @Slayer25c Because he’s a fanboy 🤗

I really want to and nearly pulled the trigger earlier today but my policy is to always wait for reviews.

@SJR Same. I got the platinum and there’s too much exciting stuff in the backlog to bother with NG+ but some DLC would probably be a day one purchase for me….and I rarely care about DLC

I am extremely opposed to MS buying up massive amounts of multi platform IPs and locking them out of PlayStation so getting Bethesda and future ABK titles on PS would be music to my ears. I don’t however want to see MS bow out of the console race and I also think it would be weird seeing their flagship titles like Forza, Gears and Halo on a different console. That said I think most of these rumours have been blown way out of proportion and in reality next weeks announcement is going to be a whole lot of nothing and very little will change.

@twitchtvpat good point mate. The work blueprint did on Demons Souls was sublime so I could get onboard with them doing it

Noooo, give us a new IP or at least a sequel please Naughty Dog. It’s been nothing but remakes and remasters for best part of 3 years now. Just seems like a massive waste of the talent over at ND.

It’s excellent. SF6 was one of my most played games last year and I thought there’s no way Tekken would top it. Still too early to say but it might do just that for me.

Tekken 8 and Infinite Wealth mostly. I completed TLOU2 for the first time last night after being reinvigorated by the remaster. Emotional to say the least but now that is done I will dip into No Return.

@Kidfunkadelic83 You can get some fairly cheap 2 star gear in the shops roughly near where you started and then if you have some iron you can upgrade those pretty effectively at the workshop (I cheated and googled where to get the gear I wanted). They will definitely get you through the 2 star bit you are at and then you will unlock the labyrinth shortly after which someone else has mentioned as a good way to get cash and level up.

It is a bit stingy with the money early doors but I have found wandering around and doing the general activities as you go gives you some half decent gear. What’s her face at revolve gives you some pretty good stuff every time you hit an aloha links milestone which is pretty often.

A good game that I feel was overhyped because it was shadow dropped and because it was the first quality Xbox exclusive after a long drought. It will be good for PS and Switch players to experience it but I also think a lot are going to be left wondering what all the fuss was about.

Oh man I loved Planet Coaster (albeit until I spent days building a park to find there was a build limit half way through creating my magnum opus)….looking forward to this!

And people said Spiderman 2 was a short game.

I haven’t played it yet but have bought it because I have some time off next week and fancy something fresh. Looking forward to giving it a go it looks awesome.

@jedinite I’m not lying because I’m not talking solely about that article. I’m talking about the months of articles surrounding Baldurs Gate 3 where I have seen some form of that comment or very similar, many times. Same thing happens with plenty of other games particularly in the Indie and AA space the moment something is announced that’s not on GP. Can you honestly tell me you haven’t seen an increasing number of these comments over the last 2 years or am I going to have to ask you why you’re lying?

@DennisReynolds The amount of “I will never play this game unless it’s on gamepass” comments on Pure Xbox is exactly the reason they are going to see more and more games skipping the platform. They already have the smallest user base of any console and on top of that the players aren’t willing to actually buy games and support developers. But the moment a game skips Xbox everyone is up in arms…it’s genuinely infuriating to see.

Looks like a hell of a lot of fun. Also looks like it might be a bit of a nightmare to play with a controller but I hope I’m wrong.

No thanks! If subscription-only is the route the console market goes down it would be the driver for me to finally fork out on a decent gaming PC. I can’t see them ever getting away with this rubbish where the master race is concerned.

Really well deserved. I’ve said it here countless times before but what SF6 does better than any other fighting game I have played is constantly push you to be better and gives you almost of the tools you need to do so. On top of that it’s got a huge amount of single player content, a varied character roster, an amazing community and beautiful graphics.

If I could make one change I would add the feature from recent MK/injustice games where you can select the inputs for basic combos and moves to appear during fights (although not in ranked). My memory is not what it used to be and this feature really helps when learning a new character. Oh and some more (non paid) customisation options for base characters wouldn’t go amiss but for pure gameplay it’s easily jumped it’s way to my GOAT.

@Darth_Stofi FromSoftware has always released really solid DLC for the souls games. They are usually dense levels with a fair amount of interesting stuff to do and collect. With Elden Ring being the pure masterpiece that it is, people are excited for a reason to dive back in and given From’s track record you could comfortably put money on it being a high quality expansion.

Fingers crossed Liam is right about the bangin showcase. It’s been too quiet for too long.

Some more day one releases on PS Plus Extra to justify the price hike. They don’t need to be AAA they just need to be decent games or something a little different like Stray, Humanity and Tchia.

I’ve been wanting to give Session and Hardspace a go. I already own Resi 2, shadow tactics, Just Cause 3 and Tiny Tina but I try to look at these monthly games based on the quality of the additions as opposed to whether I personally own them or not and I think its a pretty solid month.

If you absolutely want the most bang for your buck with PS+ the key is to never buy games and then you will almost never be disappointed. If Sony just adds games no one buys every month then it will just be pure crap quality and everyone would still complain.

I absolutely know it’s not going to happen but Helldivers 2 being announced day one on PS Plus Extra would be awesome….come on Sony make an old man (and his wallet) very happy.